Tickertape: What is it?

Now that you are using ActivInspire in your ActivClassroom have you explored some of the other Tools that are available to you? Let's take a look at one of the right now called Tickertape. You can access this tool by one of a couple of ways. The most common way to access is to click on Tools and More Tools... on the top toolbar. You can also Click the Menu Button from the Toolbox, then choose Tools --> More Tools... and Tickertape. Another way to access it on the fly is to use the Quick Key combination of Ctrl+Shift+T or set up and apply and action option to an object using the Action Browser in ActivInspire.

So now that the Tickertape Tool is open how do you use it? You enter your message to be displayed in the provided text box. You have the ability to edit how the text is displayed on the screen by changing the font style, colors, shading, background and position on the screen. You can also Create, Save and Load Tickertapes so you can have more than one to choose from. The save in location defaults to the My Tickertapes folder that is stored in your My Resources folder of the Resource Browser. You can also choose a different Save In location if you want to share your created Tickertapes with others.

Well now that you know what to do, it's time to figure out Why should you use it? There are numerous ways that you can use the Tickertape. It is great for identifying your Essential Questions, Vocabulary/Spelling words, Science/Math terms, Current Events from the News. Also you can use it to display a Question of the Day, Instructions/Directions for students, Math problem of the day. This day in History facts, you could even use it for the Wonder of the Day (Wonderopolis). Even just using it for general announcements and reminders.

Give the Tickertape a try and see how your students react to the information. Who knows they might get more out of it than you think and maybe you could have the students provide feedback on what to show.